How can we retrieve that 1963 state of mind?

Fifty years ago on a November afternoon we were doing great things in our country. We were inspiring people to promote peace in the world. We had stared down a Russian adversary with a reasonable and peaceful solution. We had decided to put a man on the moon. We had decided that we would move to honor the words in our Constitution by acknowledging the freedom, dignity and equality of every man’s creation. There was hope. America’s biggest asset was not our military. It was not our financial might. Our strength was America’s state of mind. It was being among people who innovate, people who dream of a better way and people who are crazy enough to think they can make something happen. They are the ones who usually do. We were asking how we can make us better instead of how to make it better for me. America’s state of mind is a fragile thing. It can turn in an instant and that afternoon, it did.

How do we as a nation get back to that place? How do we learn to lead the world rather than trying to rule it? How do we treat each other better with charity, forgiveness and truth? How do we come to understand again that when the least of us does better, that we all do better? When do we get back to understanding that educating our children is more important than most things? When do we understand that we are the hope of an ever more connected world and must inspire that hope by example?

John F. Kennedy, the man, had his flaws, but Kennedy, the president, gave us the state of mind that we were doing good things and for the right reason. I want it back.